Unbounded Optimism-Exuberance-Technology Revolution-Age Of Trump-Podcast 707

The economy is booming. Everything is getting better. Talk to a Trump supporter these days and that’s what you’ll hear. We’ll discuss it in Unbounded Optimism-Exuberance-Technology Revolution-Age Of Trump-Podcast 707.

The Economy Is Booming

A few weeks ago the Atlanta Federal Reserve, known for its bullish predictions, announced first quarter 2018 economic growth might be as high as 5.4 percent. It sure seemed to make sense, to hear main street tell it. Wall Street seemed to agree. In Unbounded Optimism-Exuberance-Technology Revolution-Age Of Trump-Podcast 707.

Wait! What? But You Said The Economy Was Booming!

This week the same Atlanta Fed announced a revision of its earlier prediction, suggesting economic growth for the United States might only be 1.3 percent. Less than the 2+ percent growth in the fourth quarter of last year, which was hardly booming.

We Have To Make Stuff, right?

We’ve been hearing it for awhile. America doesn’t make stuff anymore. Trump’s gonna fix it. Trade protection for the struggling manufacturers. Help for the broad shoulders of America’s industrial past. Trump’s gonna show ’em all. Find out if this is true in Unbounded Optimism-Exuberance-Technology Revolution-Age Of Trump-Podcast 707.

Where Is The Greatest Generation When You Need Them Say The Baby Boomers

Whether it’s your local Tea Party guy or President Clinton’s former labor Secretary Robert Reich, the chant is the same. We don’t make stuff anymore. Sudden authorities on the subject of character point to World War II heroes and 1930’s social welfare warriors as paragons of virtue. The past sure seems sweet to the baby boomers these days.

Suddenly the 1950’s are back.

Forget Big Oil and Banking Go After The Tech Guys

Especially relevant are the Steel and Oil barons. They used to be the villains. Now it’s the tech guys. Republicans used to be against regulation right? Suddenly the republicans and democrats want to regulate social media and search engine tycoons, because ‘something’s got to be done’. Listen to Unbounded Optimism-Exuberance-Technology Revolution-Age Of Trump-Podcast 707.

Smells Like Reagan But…

Administration officials talk trade protection and a weak dollar. So called conservatives add trillions of dollars in debt to pay for tax cuts. There’s talk about increasing taxes on gas and diesel and spending hundreds of billions more on building bridges and roads. There’s talk of US involvement in war in Syria and on the Korean peninsula. These are republicans?

Does that sound like the Reagan Revolution to you?

Everywhere an unseen revolution in technology is eroding and wiping away institutions, including government. The right and the left have lost their way. Big change is upon us. We’re going to have to figure out what comes next because our leaders never will

Are we?

In conclusion we can’t go back to the 1950‘s. However, we can’t seem to move forward. What’s our role in creating the future. What are the most important values in a world where human beings may live hundreds of years longer, robots will farm and manufacture, money will be on your hand held device, cars and trucks will drive themselves, drones will deliver and your robot girlfriend may be a lot smarter than you!

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Unbounded Optimism-Exuberance-Technology Revolution-Age Of Trump-Podcast 707

PODCAST 430

You’re Not That Hot Anymore. Are the institutions of our society failing us, or just failing to live up to their over the top narratives? A bad customer service experience leads into a discussion – presented as sort of a rant but meant as a question  – about whether the business models and technology that seemed so forward five to ten years ago don’t seem that way at all now. Technology companies, Internet Service Providers, consumer products, office supplies, services, health care, travel, utilities and all kinds of services in the western world seem to have stopped progressing in terms of service to the customer a few years ago. No longer is it good enough to deliver a great product or service, you have to have an ‘amazing’ story, be saving the whales, or making your product in some aboriginal prefecture where you pay fair wages and post the obligatory pictures of building schools, or handing out water at the local marathon or breast cancer walk. What happened to buying a toaster that works, and when it doesn’t being able to rely on a customer service approach that says, “Yep, here’s a new one”? Instead you get protocols, upsells, long waits at the help desk (with the same three songs that play over and over) bored, surly or overwhelmed ticket agents, or admissions ‘techs’. The gauntlet of nose-ring festooned ‘greeters’ sporting ‘man-buns’ or just plain mean city, county, state and federal workers is actually the new normal. We need to talk about it, and we need to fix it. Is the problem that companies are spending too much time saving the whales, and not enough time saving the customer? Or is it excessive government regulation, poor economic growth, or we’re just not as competent as our ‘amazing’ history and resume says we are? No institution in our society is more dangerously corrupt and incompetent than the government, despite what the politicians say about Wall Street. What can be done? Meanwhile…still on hold with customer service. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate. (Editor’s Note: Podcast 429 isn’t done yet, and will be on the way…so here’s podcast 430. Don’t worry you didn’t miss one.